Abstract Artist Emily Thompson Makes her Mark on Galaxy Show

Art rocks her worlds.

“By day,” Emily Thompson thrives in a successful career securely lodged in the creative, results-oriented world of graphic design and serving the client.

But “by night,” she enters a boundless new world of abstract oil painting, where her only restrictions are her limitless imagination and the size of her canvas.

An audience and judges’ favorite at the annual NOVA Galaxy Art Show & Sale – her works won Best Oil Painting in 2008 and 2009 – this year Emily Thompson makes history as the show’s only featured abstract artist in its 19 years.

Galaxy Art Show & Sale, benefiting Network of Victim Assistance, is set for October 25–28 in the third-floor rotunda of the Bucks County Courthouse. Tickets are $35 for the V.I.P. Wine & Cheese Preview Reception with the Artists on Thursday from 5:00 to 8:00; the rest of the show and all special events are free and open to the public Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 7:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 4:00.

Early exposure to arts

Emily Thompson was destined to be involved in the arts. Growing up in Queens with a mother who was an artist and art teacher, she was exposed by her parents to all art forms and was dancing, drawing and painting throughout her childhood.

“We had a little art room where we painted,” she says. “My mother would set up easels for us. When I was in junior high, I got right into the art classes.” A few years later, her portfolio and test scores won her admission to The High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. 

“It was a great school. I loved it. We were exposed to all aspects of art – advertising, graphic design, watercolor, oil painting – in addition to academic classes. The school was full of great teachers and had a really good mix of kids from different cultures and backgrounds. I felt that gave me a head start to move on to an art college.”

College was the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, where Thompson majored in advertising art.

“My goal at the time was to be an art director in an agency. Because the faculty were working professionals, a lot of my advertising classes were in an agency working with real art directors and copywriters.”

Career intentions

After graduation in 1985, Thompson landed a freelance job doing mechanicals for Bloomingdale’s. Within a year she was on staff working for the home furnishings division creating layouts and designs for ads that ran in such lofty publications as the New York Times. Over her ten-year tenure with the organization, Thompson was raised to art director, working with all the magazines and newspapers.

“It was a great experience for my first job…I was exposed to so much there. It was a good time for fashion and all the special things they did at Bloomingdale’s, including beautiful photography and illustrations.”

The unexpected bonus was that Emily met her future husband, George Thompson, in Bloomingdale’s art department. His career as a freelance illustrator on the side had already taken off, and in 1989 he left Bloomingdale’s to pursue that.

“Illustration careers in the late ’80s and early ’90s were booming,” she says, “and because of George, I became more interested in pursuing illustration. At the same time, I was doing freelance graphic design.” Busy with her mix of endeavors, she had to make a decision.

In 1994, she left Bloomingdale’s to focus on her plentiful freelance projects. The illustration really took off and she worked on hundreds of projects over the next 10 years. The highlight of her illustration career was Swatch’s choice of her design for its first wedding-themed watch in 1999 – and Swatch’s exciting signing event and solo show of Thompson’s bridal-themed illustrations from various freelance clients.

“Swatch blew up my illustrations and installed them in the windows and across the awning at the flagship store – they made a huge deal of it.”

Bucks County-influenced abstracts

Around that time, the Thompsons bought a home in Bucks County and moved here permanently in early 2000. They soon became deeply involved in the local art scene, and suddenly it was influencing their work.

“George started painting more landscapes and I began experimenting with my painting and fine art. I was strongly influenced by Pat Martin, one of the top abstract painters in the area. I became fascinated with her work. After my first workshop with her, I was so hooked on contemporary abstract art. Through her, I met other local abstract artists; we formed a little group, painted together, talked about our work. And that’s really how I got into what I’m doing now.”

The Thompsons continue to bring groups of artists to their home for drawing and painting sessions twice every week. “I think of the arts history in this area, and all the artists who now are making new history.”

For her first show, Thompson coordinated a successful exhibit of more than 100 pieces from six different artists in 2006. Held at the Medical Healing Arts building on Oakland Avenue in Doylestown, the “Six/06” was, Thompson says, “a great stepping stone for getting contemporary abstract work in front of Bucks County audiences and convincing them that it is valid.”

For someone who exhibits at prestigious juried shows around the region – her paintings have taken awards at the Philadelphia Sketch Club’s small oil-painting show and Phillips Mill – she is generous in her praise for the Galaxy Show & Sale that’s put together by a group of volunteers and NOVA staff.

“Galaxy is one of the best shows in the area. It’s amazing how organized it is, and I like that it offers a great selection of small pieces so people can buy exceptional art that is more affordable,” she says.

“It’s a big departure for NOVA Galaxy to invite an abstract artist to be featured and for the committee to be willing to broaden the show’s horizons. It opens a whole different area for the artist, the viewers and the buyers.”

Invitation to touch

“I don’t go into these paintings with a plan, but they don’t ‘just happen.’ I am influenced by the landscape, the colors around me in nature, how the sky looked with the trees against it, and I come back to my studio and begin to apply layers of paint. Since it must dry between coats, I often leave one painting and start another – so I have several projects going at once.”

Thompson takes many weeks to complete each piece, employing a complex process that includes multiple layers of oil paint, metallic powders, sometimes handmade papers, and over all a finish of cold wax. She buffs this to a sheen, and over time the wax layer hardens and protects the painting.

“My work has a lot of texture, and I encourage people to touch my paintings, to experience all that texture. Really, I want them to run their hands over the surface. And I use a lot of metallics because I like the shimmery effect. This often isn’t noticeable head-on, but from below or from the side, the painting looks very different.”

Thompson’s desire for people to experience her work with more than just their eyes goes hand-in-hand with her goal for each piece: “When people look at my work, I don’t want them to think about what I was trying to say; I want them to think about what they really get out of it.”

Collecting art

“We try to collect a piece from all our artist friends’ work, so our own collection is pretty eclectic. It brings us a lot of joy to look at it, and I love that my friends love my work, too.

“It’s fun to go to friends’ and patrons’ homes where our artwork is hanging. They’re so excited to show us ‘There it is!’ And we can’t imagine when we paint it how it will look with their furniture and other artwork. The colors look different in the new setting. It’s amazing: ‘I did that? Wow.’”

She chuckles about one “neat” aspect of abstract painting: “Sometimes, a piece gets onto my easel upside down and I think, hmm, I like it better this way. I think that’s the beauty of abstract art – you can hang it however it works for you.

“If you see something different in it, go for it.”